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Age of Milk as baby develops...

Hello Ladies,

Ok so since I am pumping I have built up quite a freezer stash. When I decide to wean off pumping/breastfeeding (around 1 year or so), I plan to give him whatever is left in the freezer, which would probably be an extra couple of months of breastmilk for him. My question is....would he be ok at 1 year of age drinking the milk I stored when he was one month old? Does the make-up of the breastmilk change as he gets older?

Happy Mama of 4 beautiful boys ages 17, 13, 10, 3 and just welcomed the newest member of the family on 3/22/2016 OUR FIRST GIRL!! :
Was not able to BF first 3 boys but now successfully and thriving

Re: Age of Milk as baby develops...

The composition of breastmilk does seem to change somewhat as the baby grows. But that change in composition is relatively minor, in that the breastmilk produced for a newborn contains all the same nutrients and immune factors that the milk produced for a 1 year-old does, just in somewhat different ratios. Breastmilk expressed for a newborn is fine for an older baby to drink, and preferable to anything you can buy at the supermarket (animal milk, formula, solids).

Milk in the freezer compartment of a refrigerator does not last that long. I think 6 months, max? In a stand-alone deep freeze, it's good for a year. So if you're storing your milk in anything less than a deep freeze, don't expect it to last a full year. You might want to start pulling out your oldest milk and using it up, maybe using one old bag per day. You should also periodically pull a bag and give it a taste test, because some moms develop lipase issues with their stored milk. Lipase is a naturally occuring enzyme that breaks down fat, and it can make stored milk taste rancid, soapy, or metallic. And even if you don't have lipase issues now, it is possible for them to develop over time.

Another thing that often happens to exclusively pumping moms is that they hit a pump slump sometime during the year. If that happens, you're going to want that stored milk! Because, again, it's always going to be preferable to animal milk or formula, even if it was expressed when your baby was a newborn, and now she's 9-10 months old or something like that.